Low-Cost Mining Hub Uzbekistan Gears Up To Embrace Bitcoin – But Will Regulate

Draft law to regulate cryptocurrency will be in place by September 1st

Central Asia Is Steadily Getting Blockchained

Central Asian economies are steadily adopting cryptocurrency in their financial dealings. While Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have already announced intentions in this regard, Uzbekistan is the latest to join the flock. The landlocked Central Asian Sovereign state has announced that it would come out with a draft law to regulate ‘electronic money’ or cryptocurrency by September 1st.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev Wants to Regulate Cryptocurrency

A new decree signed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev requires the Central Bank, the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications, the Finance Ministry, and the Ministry of Economy to prepare the bill, according to a local media report by Vzglyad. The document also calls for the creation of a competence center for distributed ledger technologies at the Mirzo Innovation Center which will seek to support domestic developers in mastering blockchain technology.The center could become functional by June 2018.

The President has also commissioned the active development and promotion of new-age payment technologies such as those used by international payment companies PayPal, Alipay, Visa, and Mastercard. Measures in this direction are also scheduled to be taken by June 1st, 2018.

Low-cost Mining Hub

What makes Uzbekistan a particularly attractive destination for the usage and promotion of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is the fact that it ranks third in terms of lowest mining expenses in the crypto space when measured on the average electricity rate per country. Mining one Bitcoin costs just about $1,788 in Uzbekistan compared with a cost of $4,758 per 1 Bitcoin mined in the US, $3,172 in China, $4,675 in Russia, and $8,402 in the UK. So, electricity costs being lowest in the region, and also abundantly available (Uzbekistan happens to be the largest electricity producer in the region), are the 2 factors that make the Central Asian nation the perfect setting to become a major crypto hub.